Buyers and sellers of agricultural commodities benefit from public provision of information in decision-making processes. The purpose of this study is to improve understanding of current preferences for public agricultural information. Results indicate preference for farm level reports by...

Research on environmental regulation’s effects on economic activity has largely focused on manufacturing, ignoring one of the major polluters in the U.S. – commercial agriculture. As livestock production has become increasingly mobile, regulation has become an important criterion in firm...

This study evaluates how the availability of animal tracing affects the cost of a hypothetical Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) outbreak in the Texas High Plains using alternative tracing scenarios. To accomplish this objective, the AusSpread epidemic disease spread model (Ward et al., 2006) is used...

This study was conducted to analyze the direct and indirect effects of ethanol policy on livestock production. Results of the theoretical model indicate the possibility of ethanol policy indirectly affecting livestock production. Econometric results show a possibility of ethanol policy...

The research reported in this paper created an epidemiological foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) spread model for Ontario. Disease simulations were constructed to reflect three levels of the cattle identification and movement recording system. Outputs generated by the epidemiological model are used...

Replaced with revised version of paper 02/22/11.

Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) was introduced in 2002 but not implemented until September, 2008. COOL required covered commodities to indicate their country of origin. Among other commodities, COOL applied to muscle cuts and ground beef. Canada and Mexico won a WTO complaint against the U.S....

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) beef grading system plays an important role in marketing and promoting of beef. USDA graders inspect beef carcasses and determine quality grade within a few seconds. Although the graders are well-trained, the nature of this grading process may...

Brazil is the fourth largest country in milk production and both production and consumption of dairy products are growing fast. However, it is unknown how the dairy sector reacts to exogenous shocks. A structural econometric model of the Brazilian dairy sector is used to analyze the consequences...

Beef is the most commonly consumed red meat and a major source of protein for US consumers. High-quality beef products are sold with substantial premiums, but the specific beef attributes by which high-quality standards are determined remain ambivalent. Most attribute studies have focused on...